Day 92 #100DaysOfOldDays

I found this photo in my pile and decided to talk about the ‘beauty board’ – among other things. It’s a very thin board that people stuck to their walls in the 70’s. I’m assuming it was called beauty board because it was beautiful!

There’s a lot to talk about in this typically 70’s photo. “Less is more” was not the mantra we lived by.

The sideboard is the same colour as the beauty board…intentionally I’m sure. I wouldn’t be surprised if that sideboard is covered with contact. It was probably a cream colour before the beauty board went up.

I think most people owned a sideboard back then. I’ve no idea what we stored in ours. Knowing my mam it was cups and glasses one week, tins of food the following week. It may have been full of toys another time. Nothing ever stayed in the same place for long in our house. The furniture got moved around so much, it was like living in a different house every month.

Look at our big telly from Kellett’s Rental! And that’s the remote control sitting on the floor…wearing the red jumper!

It’s my guess that the television unit once had doors on it, but Mam likely thought it was handier without them. It’s possible that she screwed them back in place a week after this photo was taken because it wasn’t better without them after all!

Zooming in, we have the big red record player with our radio cassette player sitting on top of it. That’s Elvis pinned to the beauty board!

I think the two matching vases once belonged to my great-grandmother. They were indeed beautiful vases back then. And they were great for holding trinkets and junk.

I’d swear that’s a mini pushbutton ashtray sitting in front of the vase on the left. My parent’s never smoked so the ashtray would’ve been for visitors.

The thing in the middle – it’s hard to see because it’s camouflaged against the beauty board – is a jar that’s decorated with seashells. There was a lot of them littered around the house. Go here if you’d like to see one of mam’s homemade seashell lamps.

We can’t leave without talking about Jacko the monkey sitting on the couch. Anyone who owned a ‘Jacko’ in the 70’s was totally made up. He was the king of all stuffed toys! Although, I’ve heard malicious rumours in the past suggesting that some children were afraid of him. I don’t believe it!

I remember the day as if it was yesterday, when that wee lad in the red jumper (the TV remote), took into a mad frenzy one evening after watching Planet of the Apes. He leapt from the table to the couch, landed on top of Jacko, and stabbed him several times with a fork. We were all horrified as the stuffing bled from Jacko’s chest. He got into fierce trouble that day – rightly so!

Mam sewed up poor Jacko with her darning needle and industrial thread (she used to sew shoes for Earl’s shoe factory). But Jacko was never the same after. He deteriorated down through the years and eventually went to Monkey Heaven!